This is Part 3 of a series of photo posts from Oakland’s Eat Real Festival, September 23-25, 2011 at Jack London Square.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

The butchery competitions are probably the most exciting parts of Eat Real Festival (Photos from last year can be found here).  Teams of butchers compete live and on stage in front of hundreds of onlookers to break meat into retail cuts in a 45-minute window.  Then, a winner is chosen by a team of judges from local restaurants (This year’s judges included 4505 meats, Brown Sugar Kitchen, among others) for a bottle of fancy St. Georges gin and a trophy.

This year, three teams competed:

•  The Yedra brothers and Rian Rinn from Canyon Market and Golden Gate Meat Company (Winners)
• Dave the Butcher from Marina Meats, Josh Kleinsmith from Piedmont Grocery, and Zach Gero from Shopper’s Corner in Santa Cruz
• Geritt Van den Noord and Jose ‘Pepe’ Penalona from Sonoma Direct and Adam Tiberio

As the audience filled in, the butchers unpacked their knives, hooks, and sharpeners.

The audience awaits..

The 3 hindquarters arrived on a cart, each aged for 21 days to a month.

They were loaded onto three hanging hooks, spread across the stage

Trophies and gin.

Dave the Butcher, a crowd favorite, sharpens his knife before the start of competition.

Zach and Josh talk strategy prior to the start of competition.

Anya Fernald, MC and founder of Eat Real and The Next Iron Chef judge, introduces the butchers to the eager crowd.

Rian gets underway

A few minutes into the competition – knives, hooks, and pieces of meat are flying and the crowd is loving it.

More images to come in Part 4.